The National Renewal Alliance (
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
: ''Aliança Renovadora Nacional'', ARENA) was a
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
that existed in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
between 1966 and 1979. It was the official party of the
military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.
ARENA was part of a
two-party system
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referre ...
enforced by the dictadorship instituted on 1966, where only it and the
Brazilian Democratic Movement
The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...
(MDB) — the "consented opposition" — were allowed. On 1979, a
multi-party system
In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...
was reintroduced to Brazil,
both MDB and ARENA were officially dissolved, and the
Democratic Social Party
The Democratic Social Party ( pt, Partido Democrático Social, PDS) was a conservative Brazilian political party.
It was established in 1979 as a continuation of the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA), the political wing of the military during th ...
(PDS) was founded as a continuation of ARENA. Soon thereafter, PDS had a split which saw the creation of the
Liberal Front Party
The Democrats ( pt, Democratas, DEM) was a centre-right political party in Brazil that merged with the Social Liberal Party to found the Brazil Union in 2021. It was founded in 1985 under the name of Liberal Front Party (''Partido da Frente Libe ...
(PFL), current
Brazil Union
The Brazil Union () is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative list of political parties in Brazil, political party in Brazil. The party was founded on 6 October 2021 from a merger between the Democrats (Brazil), Democrats (DEM) and the Soci ...
(UNIÃO), while PDS merged with the
PDC in 1993 became the
Reform Progressive Party
The Reform Progressive Party (''Partido Progressista Reformador, PPR'') was a centre-right Brazilian party, formed by the fusion of the Democratic Social Party (PDS) and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) in 1993. Two years later the party, alo ...
(PPR), which became the current
Progressives
Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...
(PP) on 1995.
History
Up to 1965, there were three main parties in Brazil: the populist
Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), the centrist
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(PSD) and the conservative
National Democratic Union (UDN). In 1964, the government of President
João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart (1 March 1919 – 6 December 1976), commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the ...
was overthrown by a military
coup d'etat, but in contrast to other
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
n dictatorships, the Brazilian military-controlled government did not abolish Congress. Instead, in 1965, the government banned all existing political parties and created a two-party system. ARENA, the pro-government party, was formed by politicians from the bulk of the UDN, the right wing of the PSD, and the bulk of the
integralist
In politics, integralism, integrationism or integrism (french: intégrisme) is an interpretation of Catholic social teaching that argues for an authoritarian and anti- pluralist Catholic state, wherever the preponderance of Catholics withi ...
Party of Popular Representation
The Popular Representation Party ( pt, Partido de Representação Popular, PRP) was a political party in Brazil. The PRP was founded by Plínio Salgado on 26 September 1945. He reassembled the former members of the Brazilian Integralism, and was i ...
. The main body of the PSD joined most of the PTB in forming the
Brazilian Democratic Movement
The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...
(MDB), the opposition.
ARENA had no real ideology other than support for the military, who used it mostly to rubber-stamp its agenda. In the elections of 1966 and 1970, ARENA won a vast majority of seats. Most agree that, at first, the MDB did not have any chance to pass or block any legislation. It also
rubber-stamped the military leadership's choice of president. Under the military's constitution, the president was nominally elected by an absolute majority of both chambers meeting in joint session. In practice, ARENA's majority was so massive that its candidate could not possibly be defeated. During most of the early part of the military regime, Brazil was, for all intents and purposes, a
one-party state
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
. Indeed, during the first two elections under military rule, the MDB didn't even put up a presidential candidate.
However, ARENA was not completely subservient. For example, in the late 1968 President
Artur da Costa e Silva
Artur da Costa e Silva (; 3 October 1899 – 17 December 1969) was a Brazilian Army Marshal and the second president of the Brazilian military government that came to power after the 1964 coup d'état. He reached the rank of Marshal of the Br ...
demanded that Congress prosecute the congressman
Márcio Moreira Alves
Márcio Emanuel Moreira Alves (July 14, 1936 – April 3, 2009) was a Brazilian journalist and politician.
Early life
Márcio Moreira Alves was born in 1936; his father was the former mayor of the city of Petrópolis Márcio Honorato Moreir ...
for suggesting that women should refuse to dance with military cadets. Congress turned the demand down, prompting Costa e Silva to issue the heavy-handed
Fifth Institutional Act, which allowed him to close Congress and rule by decree. Almost as soon as he signed AI-5 into law, Costa e Silva used its provisions to close Congress for almost two years, thus placing Brazil under a tight dictatorship.
Despite the large volume of studies on the Brazilian military dictatorship, little is known about ARENA. There are historical doubts about the formation of the party, the reasons for the adhesion of most
UDN members to ARENA, the ideological currents that permeated the ARENA party program and the extent to which ARENA was independent from the military.
In the 1974 legislative elections, MDB took many more seats than expected. It actually won a majority in the Senate, and came up just short of a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The government reacted by decreeing the recess of the
National Congress and editing on April 13, 1977 a set of constitutional amendments and decree-laws known as April Package (''Pacote de Abril'') which provided for the appointment of a third of senators, extended the presidential term to six years, restricted opposition power and even succeeded in annulling the mandates of some Congressmen of the MDB.
In 1979, in a manoeuvre to divide the opposition, the government ended the bipartisan party system, and ARENA was dissolved when the new political parties law became effective on 20 December 1979.
In January 1980, most of ARENA's former members founded the
Democratic Social Party
The Democratic Social Party ( pt, Partido Democrático Social, PDS) was a conservative Brazilian political party.
It was established in 1979 as a continuation of the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA), the political wing of the military during th ...
(PDS) as a continuation of ARENA.
Electoral history
Presidential elections
Chamber of Deputies elections
Senate elections
Notorious members
References
{{Reflist
Defunct political parties in Brazil
Political parties established in 1965
Conservative parties in Brazil
National conservative parties
Military dictatorship in Brazil
1965 establishments in Brazil
Political parties disestablished in 1979
1979 disestablishments in Brazil
Far-right political parties
Far-right political parties in Brazil